Well-written, Jeff.

I think EAA is suffering from "boiled frog" syndrome. As Jeff says, it started out as, basically, a members-only event. But, over the years, it gradually became more. And, as appealing to a wider attendance base caused more people to come, more investment (both financial and emotional) went into supporting the larger and larger crowds. If the show got pared back to a members-only event again, there's a LOT of infrastructure wasted, and a lot of vendors wouldn't come ("you promised me 400,000 potential customers, there were only 50,000"). Both would cost EAA a ton of money, and that would cripple the organization.

EAA can't go back, not easily. EAA depends on the Airventure income to keep it at the current level. A downsized Airventure *would* result in a downsized EAA, and controlling such a downsizing would be tricky. One wrong decision, and it's bankrupt. Could EAA, as an organization, give 150,000 homebuilders the current level of technical support and perform the current vital advocacy in Washington DC if it were again run by a couple of volunteers in someone's basement? I don't think so....

The obvious riposte to this is, "Well, EAA shouldn't be as big as it is. It doesn't need that big headquarters, it doesn't need that big staff, it doesn't need the museum, it doesn't need Pioneer Airport, it doesn't need six huge permanent pavilions, etc."

And that may be true. The problem is, EAA has all those things. And downsizing isn't as easy as putting an ad on "Barnstormers". Remember the Red Queen in "Alice in Wonderland": "It takes all the running you can do to remain in the same place."

I think having the Thunderbirds will be fine if EAA doesn't make a habit of it. I think it'll make the 2014 show special, but they probably don't want to cause the show-grounds and member upsets every year. It'll bring in more of the non-flying public, and what they see might tend to make them want to come back next year, even without the Thunderbirds. Have a military team every ten years or so....

Ron Wanttaja